Audio: https://connectdot.connectsolutions.com/p0thb5f4rr7t/
Hi, I'm Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
I want to thank the team at the Federal Highways Administration's Every Day Counts initiative for its hard work.
I'd like to welcome everyone who is presenting and attending at this important gathering. And I hope you will indulge a special welcome to my colleagues Tim Corcoran and Michael Divita from my hometown of South Bend. It makes it a bit easier to leave a place you love when you know it's in good hands.
I know I'm preaching to the choir, but I think its important that we view innovation not as an end in itself, but as a reflection of our priorities and in service of the needs of those communities most affected. And that's exactly how EDC works. The partnership among the federal, state, local, regional, territorial, tribal governments, and the private sector is the underpinning of EDC's model, and is why it has been successful.
As you know, we are on the cusp of a transformational moment for country's infrastructure. The American Jobs Plan would help fix and modernize every aspect of our transportation system. It would bring not just investment, but innovation, at a scale that we need to address the generational challenges and opportunities we face.
It would be the biggest investment in American jobs since World War II, creating good-paying jobs available to those with and without a college degree.
These jobs and infrastructure projects are going to help communities across the country, including those represented at this webinar. And we want to ensure smaller communities have access to these opportunities, just like larger ones.
When we think about America's history-changing projects like the transcontinental railroad or the Interstate Highway System or the New Deal, we think about the communities whose residents gained a train station that connected them to new opportunities, or towns whose residents were able to drive to their nearest city in half the time.
That is how we see the American Jobs Plan. We're thinking about bridge repairs that will empower a town and keep its residents safe, and a new broadband line that will allow [different example], and an electric vehicle charger network that will save a family with a pickup truck thousands of dollars.
We count on all levels of government working together to deliver for the people we all represent. That's the American Jobs Plan vision–and it's the Every Day Counts model.
Thank you again for all that you do, and have a great session.
